With a Heart Full of Thanks

There is no doubt that I have much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. God has blessed me with a wonderful and supportive husband, a loving family, and great friends.

This year took an interesting turn for me. At the beginning of 2009, it had been a while since I had even picked up my knitting needles. In February, I started getting the itch to knit again. Perhaps it was the fact that we kept our house at somewhere between 55-60 degrees due to high propane costs. I decided I wanted to make myself a cowl to wear around the house and started looking for patterns. When I didn't find a pattern I liked, I decided to just play around and figure something out.

By March I began getting ideas for an Etsy shop with knitted goods. I spent time on the forums and got myself all set up. By March 31st, I was up and running (I didn't want to launch on April Fool's Day, after all!).

I never thought about making my patterns available, but that seemed to be what I was getting contacted about the most. I joined Ravelry soon after Etsy, but was scared off. I'm not sure why it intimidated me, but it did. I still regret that decision- Ravelry is AMAZING!

A few months ago I decided to take the plunge and try to put some project pictures up on Ravelry. Soon after posting my French Press Felted Slippers people began to contact me about a pattern. This was when I decided it was time.

On October 12th, I launched the pattern. I was ecstatic to get home from work last week to see this:
I couldn't believe my slippers were the #1 "New and Popular" pattern on Ravelry. I have all of you to thank, and I will say "thanks" with a free pattern!

This is a pattern I promised before, I just worked extra hard to get it our earlier than expected! It is a simple newborn hat that is meant for the hospital. It is made a bit smaller than other newborn hats I have found(which say newborn, but end up being too large). The idea is to give baby a new hat on their first outing- from hospital to home. So I introduce you to "Bring Me Home Hat".

~A simple knitted hat in a true newborn size. Made with the softest organic cotton, perfect for the little one’s delicate skin. This hat is worked in the round on double pointed needles. It starts with a seed stitch brim that is followed with a row of eyelets. It is perfect for expectant parents who do not know if they are having a boy or a girl. They can bring both the pink and blue ribbon with them and have the perfect hat to bring baby home in.~

You can download this free pattern on Ravelry here. Not on Ravelry(you should be...it's free, and as I said before: AMAZING!)? You can download it here.

Besides this wonderful surprise on Ravelry, I also hit 500 sales in my Etsy shop last week. Maybe I'll even hit 50 blog followers today? So, as a second token of my appreciation, I have been working hard to get another pattern available for purchase on both Etsy and Ravelry. My goal is to have it up by next week.

Again, thank you, Thank You, THANK YOU! This has been so exciting for me and I have loved all the encouraging notes and support.